Olivier Taffin

(b. 6 July 1946, France)

Orn

Olivier Taffin is a French writer, painter and illustrator, who worked as a comic artist between 1973 and 1994. Born in Paris, started his career in 1973, contributing some comic stories to Pilote, Phénix and Le Canard Sauvage. He self-published the album 'Écarts' in 1974 and published four issues of the magazine Tousse-Bourin with Serge Le Tendre, Anne-Marie Simond, Max Cabanes, Régis Loisel, Loro and Michèle Costa Magna in the following year.

In the years that followed, he published books with Le Sénévé and Kesselring, but expanded his activities by drawing and writing for children's books and cinema, and by painting and illustrating. His comics became more rare, apart from some contributions to L'Écho des Savanes in 1977. By 1979 he co-founded the Atalier Bergame in Paris with Régis Loisel and Michel Rouge. In cooperation with Loisel, he illustrated 7 silent comic strips that came with Malabar chewing gum in 1983.

Between 1982 and 1989, he created the six volume heroic fantasy series 'Orn' with Patrick Cothias for Dargaud. He assumed a more realistic style for 'Allaïve', an absurd series he wrote and drew for Dargaud between 1986 and 1989. His final comic book was 'Odyss - L'Écheveau de l'Amer' for Vents d'Ouest in 1994.

Settled in Le Pays de Langres since 1990, he has worked on children's books for publishers like École des Loisirs, Nathan and Actes Sud. He alos developed other artistic and cultural projects like installations and workshops, in cooperation with his wife Cornelia. Taffin is a songwriter for the group Juja Lula, and the cultural and musical correspondent of Le Journal de la Haute-Marne, for which he makes the weekly chronicle 'La Queue du Chat'.